This approach, utilising the method of music education developed by Carl Orff for German school children, has been specially adapted for mentally retarded and autistic children in the United States.
Music Therapy: Guided Imagery and Music
GIM or Guided Imagery and Music is a technique in which the act of listening to classical music is combined with a relaxed state of mind and body in order to evoke imagery for the purpose of self-actualisation.
Music Therapy: Singing and Discussion Method
Singing and discussion is a typical music therapy method that can be used for adolescent populations as well as for the elderly. The music stimulates clients’ responses to the lyric parts. Sometimes the music itself encourages the expression of thoughts and feelings associated with the songs.
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Music Therapy: Music Beats and Heartbeats
Music beats have a very close relationship with heartbeats. Music having 70-75 beats per minute equivalent to the normal heartbeat of 72 has a very soothing effect. Likewise rhythms that are slower than 72 beats per minute create a positive suspense on the mind and body since the mind-body complex anticipates that the music will speed up and this restored vital energy gives a deep relaxation to the body. Rhythms that are faster than the heart rate excite and rejuvenate the body.
Music Therapy: The Indian Way of Healing Sounds
Music therapy is a scientific method of effective cures of disease through the power of music. It restores, maintains and improves emotional, physiological and psychological well-being. The articulation, pitch, tone and specific arrangement of swars (notes) in a particular raga stimulates, alleviates and cures various ailments inducing electro-magnetic change in the body.
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Music Therapy: Six Tips for Using Music in Therapy and Education
1. Use Silence
Once we know a piece of music, we notice when it is interrupted. You can use unexpected pauses in music to get the attention of students whose attention has wandered.
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Music Therapy: Music Therapy Practitioners in India
The Indian music therapy scene is fairly underdeveloped when compared to the progress made in the west after decades of serious and creative experimentation. But there are pockets of excellence saving the day for the inheritors of AUM, the first sound ever that led to Creation, according to the Rig Veda. Said Swami Vivekananda: “Brahman first manifested itself as Sound, and then as Form.” The Bible also mentions that the cosmos was created through sound: “In the Beginning, there was the Word. And the Word was God.”
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Music Therapy: The Perception of Sound
All that exists in the manifest state does so because it has a complementary unmanifest state that is its source, says Elizabeth Haich, elaborating on years of research on the subject. We perceive light, therefore, in the manifested state only because there exists an unmanifested state which is total darkness, she says. We hear sound only because there is an unmanifested state of absolute silence, the state from which all sound originates.
Music Therapy: Ragas in Music Therapy
Ragas are closely related to different parts of the day according to changes in nature and development of a particular emotion, mood or sentiment. For those with insomnia, Raga Bihag and Bahar have a wonderful effect. Bhairav is sung an hour before dawn, Ramkali at dawn, Vilavali at sunrise, Sarang at noon, Nata and Malava in the afternoon, Gaudi in the evening, Kalyan at night, Kedara, Chandra and Bihag late in the night.
Music Therapy: Naada Generating Specific Vibrations
Music is naada that generates specific vibrations that move through the medium of the atmosphere and affect the human body. Music can be defined as universal energy assuming the form of ragas, says Raja Bhau Sontakke.
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